#corn snake behavior

[omg-snakes]

Hi! I had a question about egg laying. My female corn snake is about 4 years old. She’s normally voracious but refused food today. She’s also been a lot more active lately (usually she hides until after we’ve turned out the lights for the night). Is it possible she’s going to be laying eggs even if I didn’t breed her? She was just at the vet about a month ago for a regular checkup and they gave her a clean bill of health.

Hi there, friend!

Not to worry! I think what you're seeing is mate-seeking behavior, rather than egg-laying behavior. It's not unusual for corn snakes of both sexes in spring to refuse a meal or two and be much more active in their annual pursuit of love. She'll get over it and return to her usual behavior once summer sets in and the breeding season ends.

I would watch her weight and body condition during this time and be careful not to overfeed her. Overabundance of food during breeding season can encourage her to develop egg follicles which, if developed past a certain point, can become unfertilized "slug" eggs that are mushy and harder to pass than regular fertilized eggs. By reducing her intake in spring you can discourage her from making slugs and help her get through the breeding season faster and easier.

I wish the both of you a fun and cool last few weeks of spring and a fabulous summer!

As a final note, parthenogenesis is possible but rare in corn snakes, and while an unbred female can potentially produce viable eggs, they very very rarely make it to hatching. Reproductive tract infections, by comparison to successful parthenogenesis, are much more common. It's better to discourage egg production altogether.

[omg-snakes]

I have had a baby corn snake for about two months and he's been eating great and is gaining weight steadily, so I've started working on short, 5-10 minute handling sessions once a week (about 3 days after feeding day). But I feel really bad and kind of anxious because even though my snake doesn't constantly try to escape or bite me or anything, I can see him breathing really fast like he's really afraid of me/the situation. I can also see his tongue flicking a lot when I'm holding him, and he moves fairly slowly and scents around as if he's curious to explore, but he does recoil if I move too quickly. Which makes sense, but still.

In his tank he doesn't seem to explore much at all, even though I've provided a lot of silk plants, bark pieces & branches, and paper towel/toilet paper cardboard rolls for coverage to help him feel more hidden and safe. I never see him out at all, just poking his head out of one of his hides sometimes.

Is the super quick breathing a normal thing when starting to handle babies? Does it gradually calm down as they get older and more used to the handling? Is it a sign I'm stressing him out too much? It starts literally as soon as I pull him out, and it doesn't seem to calm down at all during the session.

Sorry for the long message and probably too much info and too many questions! Every other snake I've had was an adult when I got them and already really used to handling from their previous owners, so this is my first time ever hand taming a snake on my own!

Hey friend!

It sounds to me like what you have is a typical baby corn snake. They tend to be pretty anxious because they are:

tiny

delicious (unproven)

essentially defenseless

being held by the planet's apex predator whose body is bigger than that baby snake's entire known world right now and if you don't think getting picked up by a giant bigger than your house is scary as heck then I don't know what you tell you.

did I mention tiny?

Consider that what you are doing right now is imposing a light dose of stress on your poor baby snake in order to inoculate them against stress down the road. A scared baby with a gentle and patient handler grows into a calm, friendly, confident adult snake.

Heavy breathing, looking around a lot, and recoiling at sudden movement is all on the "pretty good!" end of the Baby Corn Snake Behavior Spectrum. Signs of stress to watch for are going to be tail-rattling, trying to get out of your hands and away from you, or slight musking. Signs of too much stress would be flailing, emptying their bowels/musk glands, hissing/puffing up, or bluff-striking.

Also he's probably exploring a lot more than you realize. Corn snakes are crepuscular, meaning they're active before dawn and after dusk, so he's probably just up and around when you're not there to observe him. If he's even peeking out that means he feels safe, which means he's happy in his enclosure! A miserable snake will do everything they can to leave the situation or they'll try to get where you can't ever see them.

You're doing amazing! Continue doing as you have been and make sure to end each handling session on a high note. You and your little buddy will be besties before you know it. :)

[omg-snakes]

Do you have any tips on getting a very young baby snake to eat? I didn't produce said baby, but she maybe isn't as well started as I would have liked. She's about a month old and has had two meals according to the seller. I've had her for about a week and she's refused twice now but is otherwise looking and acting healthy. She's in a small quarantine bin with two dedicated hides, a water bowl and fake plants for clutter. I have two sides and the top of the bin blocked out to offer additional sense of security. Heat mat is on a thermostat and is currently keeping the ambient temps dead center of the temperature range, with one hide sitting on the mat reaching a few degrees warmer

Hey friend!

First off, a stinky-face at the breeder who didn't ensure that a baby was eating reliably prior to sale and didn't offer any tips on ensuring that your little one acclimated easily once they got home. That's not very cash money of them.

Second, it sounds like a change of scenery might just have been a little jarring and your baby needs some help feeling like they're at home.

My go-to method for ensuring that a little one eats is as follows:

Get a small container with a lid. A clean repurposed yogurt container, a 4-ounce sauce cup from the deli, or the travel cup your baby snake came in are all great choices. If the container is airtight, poke air holes! If none of these are available, you can also use a small paper lunch sack use a paperclip to keep it closed. The idea here is to provide a small space with no distractions.

Put your baby snake into the container gently and close the lid. Let them hang out in there to get comfy for 5-10 minutes.

While they're relaxing, get your thawed pinky very hot. Dip just the head in nearly-boiling water for a few seconds.

Using a clean pin or small scissors, poke a little hole in the top of the head of your hot pinky. Brains are mostly fat, and fat = flavor. Baby snakes, just like baby humans, gravitate towards fatty, flavorful, calorie-dense foods. No need to squeeze or anything gross like that, just a little hole will do.

Drop the hot poked pinky into your container and close it up. You can put the container back in their enclosure if it'll fit or just set it somewhere quiet where it won't be disturbed.

Walk away for 30 minutes. Resist the temptation to hover. Go watch an episode of your favorite TV show or read a chapter of your latest book or take a walk or have a snack.

Check back after 30 minutes. If the food is still not inside your snake, leave them alone to think about their choices for a whole hour.

It's rare that a baby will take longer than an hour and a half to eat, so at this point if they haven't touched their food you can call it and try again in 3-4 days.

You can also try offering live if you have that option, or reach out to the breeder and ask what conditions the baby ate under previously and try to match that.

As long as their body condition is good and they're maintaining weight, you can keep this up until they finally get the hint and start eating reliably. If they lose 2 whole grams and/or start to look emaciated, develop any noticeable lumps inside their body that aren't food, or display a sudden behavioral shift such as biting or flailing when they were previously chill, schedule an appointment with your veterinarian for help.

I hope your little one gets with the program and starts focusing on their continued growth and development!

[omg-snakes]

What does brumating look like in corn snakes? Mine has retreated to her hide on the cool side and just lives there now. She still peeks her face out when I talk to her or if she smells food but she hasn’t left that hide at all, even when she would normally be active. She didn’t do this last winter but that was in a different apartment that was naturally warmer.

Brumation is less active than what you're seeing. It's more similar to hibernation, where the animal goes dormant and sleeps until temperatures increase, only occasionally waking halfway up to drink some water and then groggily return to bed. Really the only difference between hibernation and brumation is that hibernation is for endotherms (warm-blooded critters) and brumation is for ectotherms (cold-blooded creatures).

Reduced activity through winter is common even in reptiles that aren't cold enough to brumate, though, and I think that's going on with your buddy. You can increase her photoperiod with lights on a timer to help her be more active, or you can simply embrace it and let her do her thing.

If you decide to support her decision to slow down, I recommend smaller and/or less frequent meals just to ensure that she's able to digest fully. Her metabolism and appetite will pick back up in spring!

I wish you both a snuggly, comfy winter!

[omg-snakes]

Is it normal for a 1.5 year old male snake to stop eating while “twitterpated”? Our boy has never refused a meal, but has turned down a mouse 3 weeks in a row. The first week it turned out he was about to go into blue for the second time in a month, but since shedding this is his second meal he’s shown no interest in. We’ve noticed he’s a lot more active in his enclosure (out during the day, climbing at the top) so it could be that time of the year? No mites, scale rot, or breathing issues.

Absolutely totally 100% normal.

He's a bit young but he might just be an early bloomer. Increase his photoperiod to help him move into "summer mode" and quit cruising for babes. Move his cage decor around and consider enrichment activities to distract him. Finally, keep an eye on his body condition. If he continues to refuse and starts looking skinny, I recommend having him checked by a vet to rule out parasites.

[omg-snakes]

Hi! My friend (who is very smart and good at snakes) got a snake, and she's just the best. and it got me wondering: What is socializing a snake like? Do you even socialize a snake, or do they act one way their whole lives? What does an unsocialized snake act like??

Heyas!

It, ah, it kinda depends on the snake in question, their age, and their experiences. If we're talking corn snakes, socializing is a pretty simple process that usually just involves holding them for a bit every so often. Done. Easy.

Corn snakes don't have the same kind of intelligence or desire for social interaction that we humans have. They don't seek the company of their own kind outside of mating purposes and they don't form social bonds with other species. Like, humans are so social that we not only form bonds with other non-human species but we will bond with things that aren't even alive, like cars and robot vacuums.

The act of socializing a snake isn't really getting them to form a bond on their end to us so much as it is acclimating them to human contact and getting them to understand that we're a big weird warm creature that isn't going to eat them and will in fact often provide food. While we bond with them, we learn their body language and can adjust our behaviors subconsciously in ways that minimize their stress response and maximize their perception of us as a non-threat. So great is our desire to pack-bond with basically everything around us that we'll change our own behaviors to be less threatening and not even realize we're doing it.

From the other direction, corn snakes have been bred in captivity for many generations and there is significant evidence that the experiences of an individual will affect the DNA passed on to their offspring. That's how birds and monarch butterflies know where to go when they migrate. This genetic memory hasn't been specifically identified in corn snakes as far as I know but it's reasonable to assume that it probably happens, because we have observed that a corn snake who is calm with humans will usually have offspring that are calm with humans.

Furthermore, most adult colubrids are pretty chill in general. They don't have a ton of predators once they reach a certain size and as humans we neither smell nor behave like any of those predators. If you were to catch a corn snake in the wild, they'd probably be fairly docile, which is why they became such popular pets in the first place.

Finally, it's hard to say exactly how an unsocialized corn snake will behave when introduced to humans. They might musk, shakey-tail, bluff strike and flatten their heads like a rattlesnake. They might flail and try to escape. Or they might be totally cool. The same is true of socialized corn snakes. Sometimes they'll be nippy, flighty babies and grow into very calm and sweet adults. Very rarely you'll get a baby who sucks and grows into a defensive or even aggressive adult, even with repeated positive experiences. We can do our best, but sometimes nature is stronger than nurture.

I will say, as a final final note, that a sudden unexpected behavior shift in a snake can be a sign of illness or injury, so if your usually calm and friendly snakey pal suddenly turns into a demon serpent that means you should get them seen by a reptile vet.

[omg-snakes]

Hello! Is it normal for a corn between 2-3 years to be very active and push against her/his doors to get out and explore? When this happens I take her/him out for a little while so she/he can smell new things. Anything else I can do? Cause my snake has become very active this year/spring

Hey there friend!

Corngratulations, your snake has reached snuberty (snake puberty) and they are engaging in a very normal springtime corn snake behavior: cruising for babes.

They'll chill a bit once summer gets into full swing and breeding season is over, but expect this to be an annual event. They may also have a reduced appetite and skip a meal here or there, or require a little more coaxing to eat. It's all perfectly natural, and so long as their body condition is good and they're not exhibiting any signs of illness or stress you can just laugh and chalk it up to snormones (snake hormones).

[omg-snakes]

I've had to handle my corn snake quite often lately, in ways that had to have been at least a bit painful for her (I added some new things to her tank, she got stuck, so I had to help her get out and then I fixed the issue with the tank).

Now when I try to take her out of the tank to let her climb on my arm or something, she tries to strike at me. I've tried just putting my hands near her to get her used to them, and she does the same thing. Would you recommend just leaving her alone for a couple weeks? Or should I try to 'socialize' her?

Awww, I'm so sorry that your little one got stuck and needed rescue. That's hard on both of you, and re-establishing trust can be a long road.

I'd say leave her alone for a week or two with the exception of feeding, spot-cleaning, and water changes. Let her see you doing that stuff as you normally would, and let her sniff you if she shows any interest but don't attempt to touch her or pick her up.

After she's had an opportunity for her memory of being manhandled to fade a bit, you can start socializing her again. Be patient, keep sessions short at first, and be sure to end on a high note when she's feeling calm. Don't get discouraged if she doesn't come around immediately. It could take a month or longer! Pain is a pretty strong motivator to avoid a certain stimulus and, very unfortunately in cases like these, the person doing the rescuing is usually the one associated with the pain. With gentle persistence and some time, she will relearn to trust you.

I really hope she forgives you quickly and you're able to get back to being good adventure pals very soon!